


Healing an old wound

by RocketPrinter



Series: Life goes on [2]
Category: Night In The Woods (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-11
Updated: 2018-08-11
Packaged: 2019-06-25 23:51:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15651474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RocketPrinter/pseuds/RocketPrinter
Summary: Mae meets someone from her troubled past.





	1. An unexpected meeting

**Author's Note:**

> Mae meets someone from her troubled past.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mae meets someone from her troubled past

A lot of time has passed since he has been in Possum Springs. When he was nine her parents divorced. His dad became obsessed of how the young and the government are destroying the town and moved to an apartment and never talked to him again. After the incident he and his mom moved to Bright Harbour.

 

A few days ago his dad just disappeared and he was here to collect his belongings including some family stuff. But before that he wanted to explore the town.

 

He was walking through the town to see what changed. Most of the changes were building becoming abandoned.

 

Then he froze.

 

It was her. Dark fur, red glowing nightmare eyes. The killer. Why didn’t he think she might be still here?

 

“No, no, no, no, no, no.” Andy Cullen murmured.

 

She caused too much pain. Too much suffering. He couldn’t play baseball professionally anymore. He had to move to Bright Harbor.

 

The killer saw him. Andy wanted to run but he couldn’t. He wanted to scream but he couldn’t. He was frozen in place, hyperventilating. His legs suddenly from solid ice became jello. His vision was becoming blurry and dark. He fell down on the concrete and passed out.

* * *

A new day for Mae. A new opportunity to hang with her friends or find a job or whatever. Only a week passed after she climbed out of that well and she was already feeling much better. Maybe because she could talk to Casey when she was sleeping. He was always good at calming Mae down. He would probably be a good psychiatrist.

 

She walked through the dead town looking to see if there is a new job offer, visiting her rats and chatting with other people, standard stuff. She stopped at the Snack Falcon to see Gregg.

  
“Hey dude!” said Mae while waving her hand

 

“Hey Mae!” grinned Gregg

 

“Too bad you didn`t get eaten by a sinkhole.” joked Mae

  
“Too bad you didn`t get eaten by an ancient god.”

 

“Too bad you didn`t get eaten by an ancient god by landing in a sinkhole.”

  
“What are we doing today?” asked Mae  
  
“I dunno. Let`s go in the town center and see what we can do.”

 

“Sure”

 

The friends were walking down the street, chatting, until Mae stopped.

  
“Is h-he?” Mae stopped looking at him

 

“Who?” said Gregg confused

 

“A-Andy.”

 

“Cullen?!” exclaimed Gregg while looking at the bird “Oh god he just passed out.”

 

Gregg ran toward him. Mae stayed in place, looking at Andy. Gregg did the usual stuff like moving him to shade and grabbing a newspaper to cool him down.

* * *

A few minutes later he woke up. Slowly opening his eyes he saw Gregg.

 

“Woah dude you okay?” asked Gregg

 

“Yeah I`m fine.” said Andy while trying to stand up

 

Then he saw Mae. In less than a second he began to scream and run like his life was depending on it.

 

“Wait! Stop! I`m not going to hurt you! Hey!” said Mae while running after him.

 

He pulled out his keys unlocked the car while running, he entered the car and smashed the door shut. A few seconds later he drove away.

 

“ _pant_ Mae _pant_ you okay _pant_ ” panted Gregg

 

“ _pant_ He ran away _pant_ ” panted Mae

 

“Crap how do we find him?”

 

“I dunno I think I saw on the car a “I love Bright Harbor” sticker.”

 

“Dude this weekend I will be going with Cap`n there. We are looking for apartments. Maybe you can come with us?”

 

“You are leaving in 3 months and you are already looking for apartments?”

 

“Yeah maybe you can find him in a phone book or something?”

 

“I don`t think phone books exist outside of Possum Spring dude.”

 

“Maybe you can locate him at the town hall. They should have a register where every citizen is there.”

 

“That`s a great idea Mae.”

 

“Let`s drop by Angus and tell him.”

* * *

Gregg and Mae entered the Video Outpost “Too”.

  
“Hey Cap`n.”

 

“Hi Angus.”

 

“Hello. The boss gave me like 20 horrible movies I need to watch to find what category they fit in. He said I must watch them `till the end.” ranted Angus

 

“This sounds painful.” said Mae

 

“Hey Cap`n, can Mae come with us this weekend to Bright Harbor?” asked Gregg

 

“Sure, we will pick you up at 11 o`clock.” said Angus while looking at the cat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you like this work :)  
> Feel free to criticize my work in the comments


	2. A meeting in Bright Harbor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mae travels to Bright Harbor to meet Andy Cullen

“Hey dude you ready?” said Gregg with his head out of the window

 

“Yeah dude!” said Mae while opening the door and entering Bea`s car “I even bought some money with me.”

 

“Wow Mae has money on her. I never thought that is possible!” giggled Gregg, Mae hit him in the shoulder in a friendly manner

 

“Hey Cap`n when we will arrive?”

  
“In about two and a half hours.”

 

“The waiting will kill meee!” yelled Gregg “I don`t have soda to drink or stuff to smash here.”

 

“But you have me dude.” giggled Mae

 

“Mae, I wonder why do you want to see Andy Cullen? You like never wanted to talk about the incident again.” said Gregg after the silence exceeded his level of tolerance (a very small one mind you)

 

“I dunno. I don`t exactly know either. Maybe I want this because I want to say sorry? Maybe I want to know if I did any permanent damage?” Mae asked herself “Anyways can we like play some road trip games?”

 

“Sure dude!”

* * *

After a lot of talking and playing road trip games they arrived in Bright Harbor.

 

“Dude this place is awesome! “exclaimed Mae

 

“I know dude!” approved Gregg

 

“I understand now why you want to move here.” said Mae while looking at her surroundings

 

“Its much better than Possum Springs.” said Angus “Tons of shops and jobs. Lots of parks and a beach.”

  
“Once I move here I will never go to Possum Spring again!” said Gregg, Mae sighted “Of course I will visit you!”

 

“Mae we could drop you right here the town hall is a few blocks away.”

 

“Sure, big guy.” responded Mae

 

“We will pick you up at 7 o`clock. Goodbye.”

 

“Bye dude!” said Gregg while waving

 

“Bye!” said Mae while leaving the car

* * *

“Ok first step is to go to the town hall.” said Mae to herself

 

Bright Harbor was so much better than Possum Springs. Happy people everywhere holding phones. The streets have flowers planted on each side. No ugly abandoned buildings and crappy apartments. Shops everywhere, some of them hiring.

 

The town hall was in the middle of a big plaza surrounded by nice building and filled with trees, benches, water fountains and modern art stuff. Possum Springs was boring, empty, abandoned. Bright Harbor was the opposite.

 

Mae stopped in front of the town hall. The building was decorated in great detail, all maintained perfectly. The Possum Springs town hall was junk when comparing with this one. The cat entered the building and asked at the reception.

 

“Umm…Can I need to locate Andy Cullen please.”

 

“Please go the workforce handling office on floor two.” said a deer at the reception

 

Mae didn`t visit such big building often. There weren`t building this huge in Possum Springs, so it took a bit longer than you would expect to find the office. A little bit later she left that room with a piece of paper with Andy Cullen`s home address, work address and phone number. He was a dentist.

 

First step of the plan: call him to make sure he has time to talk.

 

“Hello? Andy`s toothworks?”

 

“Yes. Do you want to make a reservation?”

 

“I want a reservation before 17:00.”

 

“Sure. Is 15:00 to 16:30 okay?”

 

“Yep.”

 

“Okay then, goodbye.”

 

It was lucky Andy didn`t know her voice. The only time he heard the cat talk was when running to his car like being chased by two bandits armed with knives. Mae had an hour to spend and Andy`s Toothworks wasn`t far from here so she decided to look around the plaza.

 

This place was alive, stuff everywhere. People here had a future. They could go to college then find a job and live a happy life. People in Possum Springs didn`t, they will work for their   entire life just to sustain themselves. When will Possum Springs be totally dead? In 10 to 20 years the town will probably have only 10 working people. ‘Stop it Mae I have time for an existential crisis later.’

 

The cat spent her remaining looking around and exploring the town

* * *

She was in front of the door. The thought of meeting him just hit her. ‘AHHHH why I want to do this? I don`t understand! This is going to be bad! What if he calls the police? Why do I want to do this? WHY?!’ screamed Mae in her mind

 

‘Relax Mae he will totally not hit you with something when he sees you. You are a smooth talker okay. With deep red nightmare eyes. Everything is fine.’

 

She opened the door. There was a small lobby area. Thankfully no one was here.

 

“Hello! I`m coming!” said Andy from the other room

 

He entered the lobby and for a few seconds his mind cropped Mae out of the room.

 

“H-Hi.” said Mae while rubbing her arm with the other one

 

Andy screamed and ran in the other room. It was clear he needed to be calmed down first before they could talk. ‘Think Mae what could you use to calm him down? There is a vending machine right there. Everyone likes a Fiascola™ right?’ Mae pulled out of her pockets some change she brought with her and got a Lime Fiascola™. Mae entered the room where Andy was. The bird was curled up in the corner of the room shaking like a broken washing machine. He had PTSD for sure.

 

“D-don’t hi-hit me!” he prayed while constantly shaking and looking with his eyes wide open at the nightmare eyes

 

“Calm down dude I won`t hurt you.” said Mae while look at what she had done “Here, take this cola. If you want to talk to me I will be in the lobby.”

 

Mae left the room. Andy was alone, shacking ‘Calm down, she didn`t hit you with a bat. Those nightmare eyes, aren`t so bad r-right?’ His method of calming down was talking to himself until he was ok.

 

‘If she hit you then doesn`t mean she will hit you now. Calm down.’ Andy was shacking a little less. He took a sip from the soda can. ‘She even brought you soda. Everything is fine, everything is cool.’ He managed to get up from the floor.

 

‘You are an adult, she is an adult. You can talk to her.”

* * *

Mae got from the vending machine a Strawberry Fiascola™. Normally she would get lime flavor but strawberry flavor had more sugar and she needed more energy right now. ’What I will say to him? Sorry? Oops sorry I send you to the hospital and gave you a panic attack 2 times in 1 week.’ Andy slowly walked in the lobby, constantly looking at Mae like she would be holding a bat.

 

“Umm… H-hi. C-can I sit here?” said Andy while pointing at a chair

 

“I dunno this is your place not mine.” said Mae while trying to sound relaxed, she was not

 

“Okay. M-maybe I will be less scared of you if I know your name?”

 

“Oh you don`t? Huh I guess we never talked after the incident. You didn`t even know my voice until now.”

 

“Y-yeah.”

 

“I`m Mae Borowski. I could say sorry right now but that feels more of an insult to how much I hurt you.”

 

Andy was facing his fears. This was supposed to be therapeutic right? The deep red eyes didn`t seem as nightmare-ish anymore right?

 

“You don`t seem like a crazy bitch. Why did you do it?”

 

“I don`t exactly know. In that day something broke inside of me. Everything became colored, meaningless shapes. The lovely tree in my backyard became just a green shape with no meaning, just existing there. It felt like I lost everything. So lonely. So sad. I don`t know why I attacked you.”

 

“Oh my gosh I-I never knew you had problems like that.”

 

“I dunno why I attacked you. I realy don`t know. I was looking at you and next moment I was beating you with a bat.”

 

“Do you still see shapes?”

 

“Rarely. Even If I would now see shapes I wouldn`t hurt you.”

 

“I never thought you wouldn`t just be some insane girl. I think I`m the one who started nicknaming you Killer. Sorry about that.”

 

“You are sorry? After that beating I deserved that name. Heck that punishment wasn`t even fair I hurt you a lot more. You had to move out of Possum Springs!”

  
“Now that I`m thinking about it its actually better I got out of that town.”

 

“That`s true but where did I hurt you?”

 

“sigh I stayed in the hospital for a month and a half. Your first hit was in my torso. You broke a rib but everything healed.”

 

“I hope I didn`t do any permanent damage.”

 

“Your second hit was in my elbow. It… never fully head and I couldn`t play baseball professionally again.”

 

“Oh gosh... I-I des-destroyed your damn future! Oh no what have done! No, no, no, no.” sobbed Mae

 

“No, no its not that bad. After the incident I realized baseball wasn`t for me anyways. My dad pushed me to get into the sport.” consoled Andy “He got divorced with my mother anyways. She turned into a selfish, horrible person. He disappeared a week ago.”

 

“W-what? H-he disappeared?” Mae realized she just killed his dad. ‘NO it was self-defense! You can`t afford to have another breakdown like at the police station.’

 

“Are you okay?” said the bird, frightened by the fact Mae was just starring into blankness “D-Do you see sh-shapes.”

 

“Uhh… no I`m fine I was just thinking about the disappearances in my town. Very strange and scary. Can we continue?”

 

“Third hit was in the beak. It never healed itself but maybe this is what pushed me to becoming a dentist. Being one makes easy to get other good dentists to work on your beak.” Said Andy while pointing at the crack. You could see it only if you were searching for it.

 

“Ok. Good lord I`m happy I didn`t destroy your face.” said Mae relieved

 

“The last hit was on the top of my head. Fortunately, I didn`t get brain damage but it knocked me in a coma for a week.”

 

“I`ve been in a coma before it sucks. It was only for a day still.”

 

“When I woke up from the accident I was angry and scared about you. With time the anger wore off. And now that I`m talking to you I`m feeling I`m not scared anymore.”

 

“It been relieving to talk to you. Even if I still consider sorry more of an insult to how much I hurt you… sorry.”

 

“Mae you changed my life, not really in a bad way. You changed the path of my life, maybe in a good way actually.”

 

“Are we like… friends?”

  
“I don`t think for now at least but we can still talk. Maybe one day we will become friends.”

 

After a few minutes Mae left the building with a paper with Andy`s chattrBox code. All that emotions extracted the energy out of her like a fruit in a juicer. Fortunately Bright Harbor was filled with places to eat.

* * *

Mae was running. All that good food made her forgot that time exists. Mae looked at her wrist watch. 19:06. ‘Shit.’ At 19:11 she managed to get to the car.

 

“What took you so long Mae?” asked bored Gregg

 

“Is food in Bright Harbor drugged because I forgot about coming.”

 

“Its drugged with the best drug: flavor.”

 

“Yeah dude, let’s go!” said Mae while jumping in the car

 

“We had a great day! We found the perfect apartment!” beamed Gregg

“Its bigger and cheaper than our apartment.” said Angus, satisfied with their find

 

“Everything is better here than in Possum Springs.” said Mae

 

“Yep. That`s why I want to get out of Possum Springs!” approved Gregg

 

“Mae how it was your meeting with him?” asked Angus

 

“Actually, it was better than I expected. It was therapeutic I think. Like healing an old wound.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you like this work :)  
> Feel free to criticize my work in the comments


	3. Back from Bright Harbor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mae returns to her home after a long day in Bright Harbor

Mae entered her house. Like every time, her dad was watching TV.

 

“Hey kitten, I heard you visited Bright Harbor with your friends.” said Stan

 

“Yeah It was nice. I will tell you tomorrow. Socializing is a very energy demanding task.”

 

“Sure is. Do you wanna watch some TV?”

 

“Nah not today I`m going to sleep. `night dad.”

 

“Goodnight kitten.”

 

Mae walked upstairs. She could go to sleep, but the laptop was attracting her like a string ball. She grabbed a piece of paper out of her pocket and typed the code into chattrBox. _Andyrocks123 has been added to your chattrBox!_ Mae didn’t have the energy to talk to him now so she would just check her messages and sleep.

 

[Crimes_with_Greggory] Hey duder!  

 

[Nightmare_Eyes] Hi!

 

[Crimes_with_Greggory] I just got some neeeewwwwwssssss

 

[Nightmare_Eyes] Tell meeeeee

 

[Crimes_with_Greggory] Next week Angus is going out of town to one of his stupid conventions about tech and games.

 

[Nightmare_Eyes] Are you thinking about what I’m thinking?

 

[Crimes_with_Greggory] CRIME WEEEEK!!!!!!!!

 

[Nightmare_Eyes] AWOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

 

[Crimes_with_Greggory] Dude every day after I escape from the s’nalcon we will do a crime!!

 

[Nightmare_Eyes] Dude after that you can like sleep at my place and watch movies like in the old times

 

[Crimes_with_Greggory] Yeah dude see you tomorrow for the first crime day AWOOOOOOOOOOOI

 

Mae closed the laptop, jumped in her cozy not-really-a-bed bed and fell asleep pretty fast.

* * *

Mae was in the same void. It became kinda familiar. A few moments later she hit the ground, got up and started running towards the spot where Casey is usually standing. She found him leaning next to a food donkey caught in a snow storm. The floating snowflakes were cool.

 

“Hey Mae, how are you?” asked Casey with a welcoming smile

 

“Quite good actually. How about ya?”

 

“Ehh just walking around this huge prison cell.”

 

“Dude I have lots of stuff to tell you. Today I went to Bright Harbor!”

 

“Where? Umm… wait is that the city Gregg and Angus want to move to?”

 

“Yep. That town is amazing! It makes Possum Springs look even more dead than already is.”

 

“Too bad I won`t see it.” Casey frowned

 

“This is so sad.” said Mae while giving a hug to the orange cat “Let`s continue before I start crying again.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Anyways, today I talked to Andy Cullen.”

 

“You must be brave to talk him after you… did that.” said Casey, wanting to not say hurt or attacked

 

“He was way more scared than me.”

 

“Like, how much?”

 

“When he saw me, he ran in another room and curled up in a corner, shacking.”

 

“Oh god that`s some PTSD level stuff.”

 

“What is PTSD?”

 

“Doesn`t matter.”

 

“You are so much smarter than me!” said Mae while raising her hands “You shouldn`t be here! You don`t deserve to be here!”

 

“Who would deserve being here?”

 

“Hmm I can think of some people.” giggled Mae

 

“Ha ha ha.” Laughed Casey “Anyways let’s continue.”

 

“Before I tell you more about the meeting I wanna make an announcement!”

 

“Should I be excited?”

  
“Yeah!”

 

“Ok, go go go!”

 

“Angus will be leaving the town for an entire week!”

 

“Crime week?”

 

“Crime week.”

 

“Wooooooooo!” burst Casey “You will have cool stuff to tell me!”

 

“Yaaaaaaaay!” cheered Mae

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you like this work :)  
> Feel free to criticize my work in the comments

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you like this work :)  
> Feel free to criticize my work in the comments


End file.
